A new tech start-up from Digital Hall of Fame inductee Andy Hobsbawm and Niall Murphy, the man behind Europe’s leading public WiFi network The Cloud, has gone live.
The veteran digital entrepreneurs’ new business, EVRYTHNG.com, connects physical objects to the web. The site provides companies behind products and their customers with real-time analytical data as they are made, used and sold, using tracking software.
The new company, which is backed by Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom’s Atomico Ventures and private investors, also aims to enable customers to ‘check in’ to a product using smartphones and smart technologies such as near field communications (NFC) or QR codes, which will allow them to ‘like’, share and comment on individual products’ Active Digital Identity™ profiles.
It is hoped that the software, which acts as a conduit for companies to supply loyalty rewards to customers, will boost product sales for clients, while enabling them to interact with customers.
Among EVRYTHNG’s first clients is global drinks company Diageo, which used the technology to allow customers to link online messages to bottles of whiskey, when giving them as gifts for Fathers’ day.
EVRYTHNG founder and CMO Andy Hobsbawm, who joined Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Apple head of design Jonathan Ive, and Stephen Fry in the first intake of the Digital Hall of Fame, is confident the technology has potential to give products an even larger online presence. He commented: “Imagine the interactive possibilities when everyday objects communicate with each other and the people that use them.
“Products can tell you how to get themselves fixed, how to use them better, and connect with others using them. This is the future happening now, it’s completely inevitable and we’re really thrilled to be pioneering it.”